In the art of shingle manufacture and use, it is commonplace that shingles are laid up onto a roof in courses or rows, generally with successive rows being staggered relative to each other. As courses approach the apex of a roof, commonly referred to as the "ridge", and generally from each side of the ridge, the shingling of the ridge itself has generally required separate treatment. Similarly, in roofing other surfaces of roofs, such as dormers, or even different types of roofs, there are places where different planes come together that are not ridges, but are called "hips". Hips can occur, for example, at the lines of intersection of the various planes of a pyramid-shaped structure. In each of these circumstances, whether it involves shingling a ridge or shingling a hip, it is necessary that the shingle be bent or curled around the hip or ridge, partially covering each of the planes that make up the hip or ridge.
Conventionally, therefore, the shingles that effect such covering are called "hip or ridge" shingles. Hip or ridge shingles have often been prepared on the building site by roofers, simply by cutting a portion of a conventional shingle. Typically, if a roof is being covered with shingles, particularly three-tab or four-tab shingles, the roofer will cut a shingle through the headlap portion, continuing the separation provided by the precut slots between adjacent tabs of a shingle, thereby yielding hip or ridge shingles each the width of a single tab, and having a lower tab portion and an upper headlap portion. The hip or ridge would then be conventionally covered by laying up such shingles such that the tab portions are visible, with each next-applied shingle having its tab portion covering the headlap portion of a previously applied shingle.
As styles in general have changed, particularly to provide roofs with different aesthetic effects, but often to provide roofs with improved protection from the elements, the use of laminated multi-layer shingles has increased. A multi-layer shingle in the art is a shingle that is comprised of at least two complete shingle layers; that is, each shingle layer as a minimum would have a base mat generally either of rag or fiberglass construction, with asphaltic material applied, generally to both sides with the mat embedded in the asphaltic material, and a covering of granules, at least on the upper surface, but also with a coating of another substance, perhaps mica, on the lower surface. The asphaltic material is generally a material having a bitumin base. Such complete layers of shingle material can have other laminae as components of their interior construction, but will at least generally have a base mat, a layer of asphaltic material, and a layer of granules. In constructing a laminated shingle, two or more such layers of complete shingle material are connected together, generally by means of an adhesive disposed between the layers, which adhesive will often generally also be an asphaltic material.
In laminating shingles together, the adhesive between adjacent layers can cover the entire superimposed surfaces, or can be applied in spaced-apart locations between the superimposed surfaces of the shingle layers, so that a given multi-layer shingle can be applied in a single shingling application, much the same way as one would apply a single layer shingle to a roof.
In endeavoring to use cut-up tab portions of a multi-layer shingle as hip and ridge shingles, it has been found that the bending or curling of such shingles can lead to cracking or wrinkling of at least one of the layers of the multi-layer shingle.
One effort to solve the problem has resulted in making special hip or ridge shingles rather than cutting them on the building site from the regular roofing shingles. Such special hip or ridge shingles have been made with a line of adhesive connecting the upper and lower layers and running vertical on the shingle so that when the shingle is bent around a hip or ridge, the line of adhesive will be more or less aligned with the hip or ridge, and with portions of the hip or ridge shingle on opposite sides of the bend then being secured to the surfaces of the roof on opposite sides of the hip or ridge. However, because such a shingle is bent, the uncovered tab portions of the upper layer of shingle may tend to stick up into the air, presenting risks of being caught by wind and ripped away from the roof. In order to overcome that particular problem, an adhesive can be applied at the site, to secure such tab portions of upper layers of the shingles on opposite sides of the hip or ridge, down into contact with the shingle's lower layer. Such a solution to the problem of wrinkling or cracking of these shingles, however, requires that additional labor-intensive procedure; namely, on-site sealing with an adhesive.
Furthermore, in applying hip or ridge shingles in general, care must be taken to provide the proper spacing for the visible portions of the shingles; i.e., to allow just the right amount of tab portion of the shingle to be exposed, without the benefit of being guided by a full course of shingles, as is present when applying full size shingles by courses to sloped surfaces of a roof.